<p>A similar thing happened to my son. His high school transcript got lost in the mail or something and we had to have the high school re-send it. I think his app was complete around April 15th, so he’s anxiously waiting, too…</p>
<p>And yeah, maybe your guy is just busy or out of the office.</p>
<p>@jayket @collinsgirl I’m not sure how much those emails really matter. I recieved my application complete email on February 19th and still haven’t heard back, so we’re all in the same boat</p>
<p>transva12: I would say on the order of magnitude of 30 or so students, give or take a half dozen.</p>
<p>Disclaimer though: This is something I could be WAAY off on by now, given that although the value of a Vanderbilt education has not changed much in a half decade, the interest in the school most definitely has. This is mostly attributable to a couple of things. The first is obvious: Nashville is becoming a desirable place to spend an extended amount of time, and that’s not just my bias speaking. Its economy has somehow remained safeguarded; it is astonishingly progressive given the part of the country in which it is located; it is developing and a freakish pace; the music scene is exploding beyond the realm of country music (the campus itself is only a hundred or so yards from two great rock venues); just a veritable multitude of reasons…</p>
<p>The second may seem convoluted but you’ll just have to take my word for it that it is real; when it comes to the impact athletic success has on interest in a university, that is a very much a real thing, and the university has had unprecedented success in the past few years.</p>
<p>tl;dr: I would say we would tend to shoot out acceptances at a pace of somewhere around 25-35 per round when I was there. Number of rounds and/or number of students admitted per round may be different now, but the process that I described in my first post is going to be the same.</p>
<p>Colleensgirl: It sounds to me like you are taking a good approach with regard to keeping your counselor aware of you guys’ presence. In concert with his Vanderbilt-centered essay, admissions understands that your son is one of those who wants to go to Vanderbilt really badly, and unless you overdo it (It sounds like you haven’t.) I just don’t envision any scenario in which that wouldn’t work in your son’s favor.</p>
<p>I maybe wouldn’t write an LOCI just yet simply because if your son is waitlisted, he’s out of cards to play. Do you see what I mean? If he writes one now before an initial decision has been made, the LOCI goes into the file, but from there, it doesn’t really do anything, you see? He has stressed that he wants to attend Vandy sufficiently that an LOCI might seem a bit like white noise in concert with the rest of his application when it comes to a decision. If he sends that letter now and is waitlisted, then you’re really out of things to do other than wait.</p>
<p>Whereas if he is waitlisted, then he writes one, that becomes a fresh part of the application file. Waitlisting kids is a delicate thing. Feelings get hurt, stress is extended, etc. That’s why it’s comforting for admissions to see such a new piece of documentation in an old file. It’s like reading “Hey, I know there are people you think of more highly than me, but I’ll put that aside, because it would really mean a lot for me to enroll in your school.”</p>
<p>Short version is I don’t think you’re being either too excessive or not excessive enough. I’m not an admissions counselor so I’m projecting to a certain degree. I know it is a stressful time right now and everyone wants to really be doing something to get something done on their behalf, but there comes a time when you need to take a deep breath and say “I’ve done all I can and if it happens, awesome.” Unless there’s a material missing or something, I think you guys are probably at that stage.</p>
<p>Maybe you mentioned earlier in the thread, but I joined so late I didn’t see. Out of curiosity, where is your son transferring from?</p>
<p>@Travis</p>
<p>So I go to the University of Maryland, and I was wondering of the admissions office would think that it is a hood school to transfer from or a “similar institution” because UMD is a Public Ivy</p>
<p>@Tyrone* I meant</p>
<p>@ CFISHER</p>
<p>Hey I’m from MD but I don’t go to CP (UT-Austin). I was actually strongly considering attending last year because I was admitted to the Honors/ChemE and it was close to home but ultimately decided not to. Are you in the honors college there?</p>
<p>@Tyrone</p>
<p>One criticism that I have of Vanderbilt’s transfer admissions process is that they don’t consider all applications at once. I know you cite the fact that it is a very tiresome process to consider so many applications (I don’t disagree with this) but I think it is a somewhat shortsighted approach to read them in bundles and release in waves. So if there is a skewed number of HIGHLY qualified applicants who completed their applications towards the latter portion of the due date, then they will not evaluated until much later. But if more applicants who are less qualified (relative to entire pool) are admitted in the first waves because they finished their applications earlier, then it really puts those applications read later at a disadvantage because they obviously can’t rescind any acceptances in hindsight and there don’t exist an unlimited number of spots.</p>
<p>I say this because I am applying to a few other schools and when I recently called admissions at a few of them, they told me they could not give me an early release decision as they were still in the process of evaluating the entire pool. This makes more sense to me because you have the benefit of weighing the merits of applicants relative to the entire pool as opposed to the small applicant cohort.</p>
<p>Don’t you agree?</p>
<p>@tranva</p>
<p>I’m not in the honors college, but I am studying Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering too.</p>
<p>@CFISHER</p>
<p>Oh wow that’s really funny. Well, the ChemE program at UMD Clark School is pretty good when compared to Vandy, if they have one. </p>
<p>What is your statistics profile for the Vandy application?</p>
<p>hs gpa-3.0
1st semester college gpa-3.488</p>
<p>sat- 1640 (math, reading, and writing)…I know its really low, but I took it two years ago, so I don’t think it would matter as much.</p>
<p>I have GREAT extra-curricular
I have amazing recommendations
I have a recommendation from an alumni that interviewed me
I also wrote a Why Vandy Essay and my English and COMM professor said it was really great and I communicated my ideas really well. I worked sooo hard on it for a long time, and had it read over a lot.</p>
<p>@Tyrone. Thanks again! What you’re saying about the followup interest letter makes total sense. Will wait it out. </p>
<p>My son is transferring from a junior college you’ve probably never heard of. lol</p>
<p>It’s called Vincennes University. I’m sort of hoping that since both schools are “VU” that will help… haha j/k.</p>
<p>Son had a 3.05 hs GPA.</p>
<p>His first semester at VU was 4.0, but his overall VU GPA is 3.65 because of three dual credit courses he took in high school. Those courses were something like, C+, B and A. His high school used VU as their dual credit college. </p>
<p>It’s been suggested that admissions reviewers may look at what he took while still in high school and factor that out, but I don’t know.</p>
<p>I just hate to keep trying to over-analyze this. He has great essays and stellar recommendations.</p>
<p>Yet, I’m wondering… does anyone really ever have bad recommendations? To me, it’s kind of like job references. You just don’t give names of people who will give you a bad recommendation. I wonder if these recommendations really mean that much if everyone has good ones. </p>
<p>Thinking too much again. lol</p>
<p>I think my scores are going to screw me. 2060 SAT, hs u/w gpa 3.95, college gpa 3.7, greats reccs. I wish Vandy knew how much I want to go there. Once again, the neighbor is getting the mail to check for a vandy envelope.</p>
<p>@cfisher1 - good to see some other ‘DMV’ people applying…are you a freshman @ UMD? If so that 1 semester of <3.5 isn’t going to help your odds much…aim for a 4.0 the next two semesters to get that gpa up to >3.8 and you’ll have much better chances…</p>
<p>I wonder if the transfer admit rate will dip below 20% this year</p>
<p>Anyone get admission letter today? Weird today is monday</p>
<p>cfisher1: Haha, don’t worry about that. In my two years we had transfers from community colleges to huge state schools to UPenn. Remember, no one is going to look at an application and call anything a drawback.</p>
<p>transva12: I respect that opinion and understand the concern. However, I point you back to my second or third post, where I indicated that thanks to statistical probability, that scenario just doesn’t really happen. It sure didn’t happen in my two years. I’m sure that is not very comforting when you’re waiting on a decision to hear “it’s in math’s hands,” but understand that every school lowballs their acceptances initially so that those that admissions is on the fence about can be reviewed with (or against, whichever preposition suits your fancy) one another. Again, I can’t really offer you anything other than an understanding that there may be an inherent disconnect between admissions and applicants, an explanation, and a reassurance that you will be reviewed fairly. But I hope you understand that I can’t really do more than that and let you know that, in my opinion, the system in place was for the best.</p>
<p>Colleensgirl: Never once did I see or even hear of a negative letter. Some were more restrained in their praise, indicating solid work but untapped potential, but I would hope no professor would be malicious enough to take time out of their day to do that to a student asking for help. If a professor or teacher or employer doesn’t have good things to say, he will either tell the applicant that they should look elsewhere for a recommendation, or ask the student for a statement describing their goals so that their letter can be helpful. But never have I heard of a bad letter.</p>
<p>My mail hasn’t come today, but has anyone received anything? I got my grades back for the spring semester today and just requested them to be sent to Nashville. All I can do is hope they see them before they mail my app.</p>
<p>My house is about six hours from Nashville. My mom said “not yet” but she didn’t specify if that meant “no mail yet” or “no mail for you yet.” </p>
<p>I’m making myself sick with stress. 
I need this to be over so I can study organic, lol!</p>
<p>I was selected to have my FAFSA reviewed (yaay…) so I feel like if I was accepted, financial aid would get to me first.</p>
<p>Awesome I heard back from Rice today and was accepted. I’m still waiting for Vandy and a few others. Maybe this means good news for the rest though. If I had to choose between Vandy and Rice, it would be a very difficult decision.</p>
<p>Nothing today in Indiana.</p>
<p>No decision today either -.- Vandy has like the worst decision notification system for transfers. Ever.</p>